Big Figures Impact if Dubai wins Expo 2020

The 54-year-old business intelligence tool for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Middle East Economic Digest (MEED) has collated some key numbers if Dubai will make it to host the Expo 2020. The big figures plans making up the winning Dubai Expo2020 are as follows: Financing costs: $7bn (Dubai government) Impact of a successful bid: $23bn (BofA Merrill Lynch) Expected attendees: 25 million (Expo 2020 Dubai) Proportion of attendees from overseas: 70 per cent Number of exhibiting countries and companies: 182 (Expo 2020 Dubai) Jobs created between 2013 and 2021: 277,000 (Brand Finance) Average GDP growth 2014-16: 6.4 per cent (Barclays) Size of exhibition site: 4.4 square kilometres (Expo 2020 Dubai) Number of new hotel rooms needed by 2020: 81,000 (Al-Ramz Securities) Investment in hotel capacity required by 2020: $7.2bn (EFG Hermes) A decision will be made today on which city will host the World Expo 2020. Dubai is pitched against three cities – Ekaterinburg in Russia, Izmir in Turkey and Sao Paulo in Brazil. Voting is taking place this evening (Dubai time). As of press time, Dubai leads the casting of votes among 165 countries, whereas, Sao Paulo in Brazil was already eliminated.